Mary Mother of Jesus Inclusive Catholic Community Liturgy
15th Sun in Ordinary Time July 12, 2025
Liturgy Team: Elena Garcia ARCWP, Cathy Alexander,
Pat Ferkenhoff, Bob Ferkenhoff, Joan Meehan, Cheryl B
I Team: Cheryl Brandi, Jerry Bires, Michael Rigdon
Theme: The Lens of Love
GREETING and WELCOME
(Elena) We will be reminded again in today’s gospel how Jesus followed the lawyer’s question about how to inherit eternal life, with the parable of The Good Samaritan. On our life journey we are each endowed with gifts that require practice in order to achieve a measure of excellence and success. Love is a universal God-Given gift and law that requires us to look through a different lens in order to achieve quantum success. Love is a challenge that requires a constant battle with our egos, and the rewards are out of this world! Recognizing the abundance of what God gives us and letting that overflow into our everyday actions without concern for inconvenience or repayment; This is love.
And so, we welcome everyone to our Zoom liturgy at Mary Mother of Jesus, an inclusive Catholic Community, where all are welcome:
Whoever you are, Wherever you are, Just as you are, you are welcome here.
We ask you to please have bread/crackers and wine/juice near you so that you may conveniently consecrate them for your Communion in the service.
We begin this and every liturgy In the name of God our Creator, Jesus our Brother and Holy Spirit Sophia, our Wisdom. All: Alleluia
OPENING PRAYER
(Cathy) O Holy One, You nourish and challenge, call and direct, forgive and comfort ---- sheltering us in your presence every moment of our lives. Enkindle in us the Love that led your son, Jesus, to live and to die for us.
May our hearts respond in joy and trust to your call for spiritual transformation, as we gather today in the Name of All that Is. Open our minds beyond structures to the truth of the Gospel, and guide us in living sacramental equality. Let our lives continue the revelation of your goodness, you who are God forever and ever. AMEN
GATHERING SONG
We Shall Be Known
https://youtu.be/Vt_VQs8LP6k Stop at 2:00
RITE OF TRANSFORMATION
(Elena) We pause now to remember the times we have failed to love one another and all beings on earth, when we have not born fruit in caring for self, others, and our planet Earth. Let us take a moment to recall one missed opportunity, one broken or damaged relationship.
(Pause briefly and extend your hand over your heart)
(Elena and All) As we ask for and receive forgiveness, we open our hearts to Infinite Love embracing and healing us. Let it be so! Alleluia!
THE SIGN OF PEACE
(Cathy) It is fitting that, having asked for Divine and mutual forgiveness, we now extend an expression of Peace to each other.
(Cathy and All): Grant us Your peace O Loving God, that following the example of Jesus and with the strength of the Spirit, we may be eager to spread that peace to everyone, everywhere, with no exceptions. Amen (Cathy): May the peace of our gracious and loving God be always with us. Let us turn to each other and with praying hands offer each other a sign of peace. NAMASTE 3x
Gloria: Glory to God
https://youtu.be/udjH7EON5IY
by Marty Haugen - video by Bridget Mary Meehan and Mary Theresa Streck
FIRST READING The Samaritan Schism
(Pat) There is considerable scholarly controversy regarding the date of the Samaritan schism. Although some seek to identify the origins of the Samaritans in the Hellenistic period, their beginnings should be traced back to the 6th century B.C.E. When the Assyrians destroyed the Northern Kingdom of Israel in 722 they exiled the upper crust of society, in order to deprive the country of its leadership. At the same time, as they did elsewhere, they brought in foreign elements in order to create a mixed population unlikely to unify and revolt. These new elements eventually mixed with the native population and together they evolved a syncretistic form of Israelite worship.
When the Judeans returned to rebuild the Temple in about 520 B.C.E., the Samaritans, identifying with the Judeans, offered to help in the endeavor. The Judeans rejected the Samaritans, because of their questionable Jewish descent and their syncretistic cult. As a result, long centuries of hostility began. The Samaritans constantly attempted to block the rebuilding of Jerusalem by appealing to Persian authorities.
Following their rejection by the Judeans, the Samaritans set up their own cult center at Mt. Gerizim, near Schechem, modern Nablus. Yet, the subsequent history of Jewish-Samaritan relations was one of continued decline. In the Hellenistic period, the Samaritans often took stands against their Judean neighbors. The Samaritan Temple was destroyed by the Hasmoneans. Nonetheless, throughout this period, the Samaritans continued to have an ambiguous status as Jews. They were regarded as Jews who had somehow been corrupted in their religious practices.
This brief history is found in the writings of Lawrence Schiffman and our response is: Thank you.
This history of The Samaritan Schism was written by Lawrence H. Schiffman: the Judge Abraham Lieberman Professor of Hebrew and Judaic Studies in New York University’s Skirball Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies. As the second part of a series of articles on schisms in Jewish history.
(Cheryl B ) Psalm 113: 1-9: God restores joy and gladness of heart.
Sing praises to the Beloved of all hearts!
Sing praises all you who would honor Love,
Sing praises to the Architect of the universe!
RES: God restores joy and gladness of heart.
Bless the Holy One from this time forth and forever more!
Aspire to know the unknowable, to enter fully into the Great Mystery
To be fertile ground to the Heart-seed of Love.
Aspire to gifts of the Spirit, be open to grace and express gratitude!
RES : God restores joy and gladness of heart.
Who is like the Blessed One, the One who is Infinite Love, Power, and Wisdom,
Who enters into human hearts and brings comfort to those in need?
Yes, those who call upon the Merciful One, are lifted up and blessed with new life
They wear a crown of joy, as they recognize their oneness with Spirit.
RES: God restores joy and gladness of heart.
Come, all who suffer and are heavy-laden, open your hearts to Love
Sing praises to the Heart of all hearts!
RES: God restores joy and gladness of heart.
Second Reading The Many Faces of the Good Samaritan—Most Wrong (Bob) The Parable of the Good Samaritan is a favorite of both children and adults. The story is told in Luke 10:29–37 Some appropriate lessons can be drawn from the parable, as well as some that are far-fetched, to say the least. For children, the parable can illustrate universal morals: We should help people who are hurt. It has also been used to warn kids: “Don’t walk by yourself on dangerous roads.” For adults, the meaning is more profound. It is consistent with the Biblical mandate to love one’s neighbor as oneself, and it follows up on that mandate to insist that the love be manifest in action. As interpretations about dangerous highways and universal healthcare indicate, the parable means different things in different times and places and for different audiences. Appropriation of the text for new contexts is inevitable. Hearing the parable as Jesus’ original audience heard it should also be part of the repository of meaning. But again, we find several contemporary interpretations that might surprise Jesus’ audience. Here are four common anachronisms heard today: First is the view that the robbers would have been regarded as freedom-fighters, dispossessed peasants forced into debt by Roman and Temple taxation and kept there by pressures from urbanization programs. The robbers are therefore sympathetic “social bandits,” Robin Hoods in tzitzit. Nonsense! The Greek term that Luke uses is lestes, which means “robber,” not “freedom fighter,” as the violence of the perpetrators in the parable suggests. This same word appears in Jesus’ condemnation of the Temple: “You have made it a den of robbers [lestes]” (Matthew 21:13; Mark 11:17; Luke 19:46). Paul uses it to describe the dangers he faced from “bandits” (2 Corinthians 11:26). Paul is not talking about the Merry Men. Another foolish suggestion is that the victim—the Greek calls him “some guy” (anthropos tis)—deserved his fate. A few scholars propose that the victim is a tradesman who, because he consorts with all sorts of folks, is ritually unclean and therefore unsympathetic. Such conclusions not only stretch the text well beyond its words and its contexts, they also impart a negative view of Torah and Jewish society unwarranted by any historical understanding. An injured man prompts sympathy, not schadenfreude. A third interpretation sometimes heard is the related claim that the priest and the Levite avoid the victim because, should he be dead, or die while they attended him, they would become ritually unclean. Therefore, in avoiding the injured man, they are actually following Torah. Again, nonsense. Yes, priests are to avoid corpses (see Leviticus 21:1–3), save for those of immediate family members, but this law does not apply to Levites. Were the priest concerned about the purity required by his Temple duties, he might have hesitated; but this priest is not going up to Jerusalem, he is going down (katabaino) from it. Moreover, in Jewish law saving a life trumps all other laws. The Mishnah (Nazir 7.1), the earliest compilation of rabbinic law, insists that even a high priest should attend a neglected corpse.
In the parable, the priest and Levite signal not a concern for ritual purity; rather, in good storytelling fashion, these first two figures anticipate the third: the hero. Jews in the first century (and today) typically are either priests or Levites or Israelites. Thus the expected third figure, the hero, would be an Israelite. The parable shocks us when the third figure is not an Israelite, but a Samaritan. But numerous interpreters, missing the full import of the shock, describe the Samaritan as the outcast. This approach, while prompting compelling sermons, is the fourth anachronism. Samaritans were not outcasts at the time of Jesus; they were enemies. In the chapter before the parable (Luke 9:51–56) Luke depicts Samaritans as refusing Jesus hospitality; the apostles James and John suggest retaliation: “Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?” (Luke 9:54). John 4:9 states, “Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.” The Jewish historian Josephus reports that during the governorship of Cumanus, Samaritans killed “a great many” Galilean pilgrims traveling to Jerusalem (Antiquities 20.118–136). The first-century Jewish person hearing this parable might well think: There is no such thing as a “good Samaritan.” But unless that acknowledgment is made, and help from the Samaritan is accepted, the person in the ditch will die. The parable offers another vision, a vision of life rather than death. It evokes 2 Chronicles 28, which recounts how the prophet Oded convinced the Samaritans to aid their Judean captives. It insists that enemies can prove to be neighbors, that compassion has no boundaries, and that judging people on the basis of their religion or ethnicity will leave us dying in a ditch.
This writing was authored by Amy-Jill Lavine and our response is: Thank you!
Amy-Jill Levine is the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Professor of New Testament Studies and Professor of Jewish Studies at Vanderbilt Divinity School and College of Arts and Sciences in Nashville, Tennessee. In 2011, she became an affiliated Professor at the Woolf Institute, Centre for the Study of Jewish-Christian Relations at Cambridge, UK. She co-edited The Jewish Annotated New Testament (Oxford, 2011) with Professor Marc Brettler of Brandeis University.
Gospel acclamation: Celtic Alleluia by Christopher Walker
https://youtu.be/4cs8NDVM3Vk
Gospel: Luke10:25-37
(Joan M) Just then a religion scholar stood up with a question to test Jesus. “Teacher, what do I need to do to get eternal life?” He answered, “What’s written in God’s Law? How do you interpret it?” He said, “That you love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and muscle and intelligence - and that you love your neighbor as well as you do yourself.” “Good answer!” said Jesus. “Do it and you’ll live.” Looking for a loophole, he asked, “And just how would you define ‘neighbor’?”
Jesus answered by telling a story. “There was once a man traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho. On the way he was attacked by robbers. They took his clothes, beat him up, and went off leaving him half-dead. Luckily, a priest was on his way down the same road, but when he saw him he angled across to the other side. Then a Levite religious man showed up; he also avoided the injured man.
“A Samaritan traveling the road came on him. When he saw the man’s condition, his heart went out to him. He gave him first aid, disinfecting and bandaging his wounds. Then he lifted him onto his donkey, led him to an inn, and made him comfortable. In the morning he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, “Take good care of him. If it costs any more, put it on my bill – I’ll pay you on my way back.”
“What do you think? Which of the three became a neighbor to the man attacked by the robbers?” “The one who treated him kindly,” the religious scholar responded. Jesus said, “Go and do the same.”
These are inspired words found in the Gospel of Luke. And we all respond: Alleluia!
Homily
Shared Homily
What did you hear in today’s readings? Please share your wisdom with the community.
Profession of Faith
(Cheryl and All) We believe in you O God, Creator of the universe, whose divinity infuses all that exists, making everything sacred. Jesus, we believe in You, messenger of the Divine Word, the bringer of healing and the heart of Compassion. We believe in you Holy Spirit, the breath of our innermost life, and the Sustainer who heals and energizes us when our spirits grow weary in our journeys.
We believe that You are here with us today in this gathering, calling us to be a loving and just people. We believe the poor have a priority in your plans and we are called to do our best to serve them in your name. We believe you are offering us freedom and grace to become our true selves, so that we can turn from false, worldly securities and look to you for our true identity as your children. We believe that as You were anointed by God to do God’s will, through our baptism, we too are called to be a sign of God’s Kingdom on earth where we are all sisters and brothers
PRAYERS OF AND FOR THE COMMUNITY
(Joan) As we prepare for the sacred meal, we bring to this table our blessings, cares and concerns.
Response: By Your grace we cast aside fear and embrace trust.
Sacred Spirit, we bring to the table all those who are taken from work, from colleges and schools, from their homes, and forced to leave our country, those who indeed have Visas and who pay taxes on their earnings:
Response: By Your grace we cast aside fear and embrace trust.
We bring to the table our immigrant families, who are denied entrance into our country, who are returned to Mexico or sent to other countries, who are put away in prison without the benefit of our systems of justice.
Response: By Your grace we cast aside fear and embrace trust.
We bring to the table our veterans who are losing their benefits after serving our country with honor, and all women who have lost their right to make medical decisions with their doctor because of unjust laws promulgated by our country.
Response: By Your grace we cast aside fear and embrace trust.
We bring to the table all those in this country who are being negatively impacted by the direction this current administration has chosen.
Response: By Your grace we cast aside fear and embrace trust.
We bring to the table all those suffering as a result of the natural disasters taking place on our planet and all who are suffering, lonely, and without faith or hope.
Response: By Your grace we cast aside fear and embrace trust.
We bring to the table all those living in conditions of war and fear and all our brothers and sisters who would appreciate our prayers for their unsolicited special intentions as well as all the intentions that remain in the silence of our hearts.
Response: By Your grace we cast aside fear and embrace trust.
We bring to the table the intentions in our MMOJ community prayer book. (Joan shares)
Response: By Your grace we cast aside fear and embrace trust.
And for what else shall we pray? Please feel free to voice your concerns beginning with the words: “I bring to the table……… and we respond:
Response: By Your grace we cast aside fear and embrace trust.
(Joan) Gracious and loving Spirit, we place our trust in your faithful love and presence within us and our entire universe. We turn to your Presence in one another to be a source of strength during these very difficult times. We know and believe that the message of Jesus lives in us. We count on your sacred Energy to lift us up and we pledge to lift one another in love and support. All: Let it be So
LITURGY OF THE EUCHARIST
PREPARATION OF THE GIFTS
( Pat ) Blessed are you, God of all life, through your goodness we have bread, wine, all creation, and our own lives to offer. Through this sacred meal may we become your new creation.
All: Blessed be God for forever.
(Elena)
Although we come from diverse backgrounds, we are one body, for we all share in this one bread. And so, let us sing along with Joe Wise as he leads us in song to bring ourselves with gratitude and humility, just the way we are, to the celebration of Eucharist.
Song: We offer our gifts. 🎶 “Here is My Life”
by Joe Wise
https://youtu.be/Ao5VnopCP-Y
EUCHARISTIC PRAYER
(Cathy) The Holy One dwells within you.
All: And loves through you.
(Cathy) Lift up your hearts.
All: We lift them up to the Great Spirit dwelling in all creation.
(Cathy) Let us give thanks that we are co-creators of a new heaven and earth.
All: It is right to proclaim our oneness with All.
Extend your hands over the bread and wine for the epiclesis
(Cathy and All) Sacred Spirit, You, are always with us. We are grateful for Your constant loving and unconditional presence. You give us life, and we live and breathe with your Spirit. You raise our consciousness to the blindness around us. We believe the Gospel message of Jesus and we embrace his calling to us, to be faithful.
(Elena)The disciples, women and men, were gathered together with Jesus for the Seder meal.
Anticipating the likelihood of betrayal, arrest and pain, Jesus wanted more than anything to be with his friends, to share a meal, exchange stories and create memories.
On that night before he died, while gathered with the people closest to him, Jesus once again, showed us how to love one another, by leaving his place at the table and washing their feet, like the least of household servants.
(Together we lift our plate of bread as we pray)
When Jesus returned to his place at the table, he lifted the Passover bread, spoke the blessing, broke the bread, and offered it to them saying:
Take and eat the Bread of Life. Whenever you remember me like this, I am among you. (PAUSE)
Jesus then raised his cup of blessing, spoke the grace, and offered the wine saying:
Take and drink of the covenant made new again through my life in you.
Whenever you remember me like this, I am among you.
( Cathy) This is the bread of life and cup of blessing.
What we have heard with our ears, we will live with our lives; as we share communion, we will become communion, both Love’s nourishment and Love’s challenge.
(Cheryl & All) Please join in praying the prayer for the breaking of the bread:
Ever Present Sacred Spirit, you call us to live the Gospel of peace and justice.
We will live justly.
Ever Present Sacred Spirit, you call us to be Your presence in the world.
We will love tenderly.
Ever Present Sacred Spirit, you call us to speak truth to power.
We will walk with integrity.
(Elena) Like Jesus, we are inspired and come before this altar with open hands and open hearts. We will live a life rooted in compassion, as it is living as Jesus lived, that we awaken to your Spirit within, moving us to glorify you, O Holy One, at this time and all ways.
Let us share the Body of Christ with the Body of Christ! All are welcome. All: AMEN
Receive the Bread and Cup before you and as we share let us proclaim
“You are the face of Jesus in this world.”
Communion Song and Reflection: I Am the One, Janis Ian
https://youtu.be/83CKYR9uyFI
THE PRAYER OF JESUS
(Joan M and All)
Eternal Spirit, Earth maker, Pain bearer, Life giver,
Source of all that is and that shall be,
Father and Mother of us all,
Loving God, in whom is heaven –
The hallowing of your name echoes through the universe.
The way of your justice be followed by the peoples of the world,
Your heavenly will be done by all created beings.
Your commonwealth of peace and freedom
sustain our hope and come to earth.
With the bread we need for today, feed us.
In the hurts we absorb from one another, forgive us.
In the times of temptation and test, strengthen us.
From trial too great to endure, spare us.
From the grip of all that is evil, free us.
For you reign in the glory of the power
that is love, now and forever. Amen
PRAYER AFTER COMMUNION
(Cathy ) Creator of the cosmos, divine dancer, you have lifted us up and swung us around to see your beauty in nature's awesome gifts everywhere and in everyone. May we continue to move together to the divine rhythm of harmony and peace, Justice and equality, dancing joyfully in love with all created beings forever. You guide us to new life and inspire our work and play with creativity and joyful enthusiasm. We walk in the footsteps of those on whose shoulders we stand. All: Amen
INTRODUCTION OF GUESTS, THANKSGIVING, AND ANNOUNCEMENTS
CONCLUDING RITE
(Elena) The Holy One is within you ;
All: And within all people and all creation everywhere.
BLESSING
(Bob) We are called to do everything Jesus did, to be the living presence of a love that lives justly, of a compassion that heals and liberates, of a joy that generates laughter, of a light that illumines right choices and confronts our darkness.
So, we trust you to continue to share with us your own Spirit, the Spirit that filled Jesus, for it is through his life and teaching, his loving and healing, all honor and glory is yours, O Holy One, forever and ever. Amen
Before we leave our “squares” Let us offer one another comfort, support and a week of peace during this particular time of suffering in our country and in our world. Let us never falter in our convictions that justice will be served and peace will return. Let us send one another from this space with deep peace:
Namaste, Namaste, Namaste
(Everyone please extend your hands in mutual blessing)
( Elena and All) Oh Holy One, as we step into each new day, we humbly place ourselves under Your loving care. Surround us with Your shielding presence and let Your grace be our armor. Guide our steps and lead us along paths of righteousness. Keep us safe from the unforeseen dangers of the day and guard our minds against negative thoughts. Following the example of all those on whose shoulders we stand, may we be a beacon of Your love and peace, reflecting Your goodness in all that we do, for You, and You alone, are the Truth, the Faith, and the Way. In the name of all that is Holy, we pray. Amen.
DISMISSAL
(Elena) Go in the peace of Christ. Let us live fearlessly in the joy of God’s Love !
All: Thanks be to God. Alleluia!!
CONCLUDING HYMN “Standing on the Shoulders” by Joyce Johnson Rouse
https://youtu.be/elh77GtHWPU
I am standing on the shoulders of the ones who came before me I am stronger for their courage, I am wiser for their words
I am lifted by their longing for a fair and brighter future
I am grateful for their vision, for their toiling on this Earth
We are standing on the shoulders of the ones who came before us. They are saints and they are humans, they are angels, they are friends We can see beyond the struggles and the troubles and the challenge When we know that by our efforts things will be better in the end
They lift me higher than I could ever fly Carrying my burdens away
I imagine our world if they hadn't tried We wouldn't be here celebrating today
I am standing on the shoulders of the ones who came before me I am honored by their passion for our liberty
I will stand a little taller, I will work a little longer
And my shoulders will be there to hold the ones who follow me
They lift me higher than I could ever fly Carrying my burdens away
I imagine our world if they hadn't tried We wouldn't be so very blessed today
I am standing on the shoulders of the ones who came before me I am honored by their passion for our liberty,
I will stand a little taller, I will work a little longer
And my shoulders will be there to hold the ones who follow me
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If you would like to add an intercession to our MMOJ Community Prayer book, please send an email to jmeehan515@aol.com
If you would like to invite another person to attend our liturgy please refer them to www.marymotherofJesus.org where the day’s liturgy is found. Zoom instructions are also included there.